Divergent- Zahlia's Story
by DivergentLover511
Summary: The world of Divergent from the perspective of Zahlia Grey, a 16 year old Erudite.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

This is it, the day of the Aptitude Test, the day I figure out what faction I belong in. Would it be Dauntless, the brave, my home faction? Or maybe Erudite, the intelligent; or Abnegation, the selfless? I don't know, at least I can rule out two, Candor, the honest, and Amity the kind. That still leaves 3 factions to choose from, I guess I'll find out today.

My mother, Kelsi Grey, wishes me luck as I walk through the door, but I barely hear her. After breakfast, I get up and follow the other Dauntless to wait for the train. The train is the Dauntless' way of transportation, it never stops, so you have to jump on and off. I meet my best friend, Lorin, by the tracks, just in time to see the train barreling toward us.

"Time to jump," he says, looking nervous.

"Oh come on, we've done this tons of times! You should be used to it by now." I say.

"Whatever" he says, pushing me in the shoulder.

As the train draws closer, I start to run, with Lorin right behind me. I grab the handle and pull myself in, then turn around and watch Lorin pull himself up.

"You could've helped me, you know," Lorin says, smiling.

"I know," I say, grinning back.

Before I know it we're already at school, and it's time to jump again. Still grinning, I sprint toward the door, and jump. I hit the ground running, then turn and wait for Lorin. When all the Dauntless are on the ground we head toward the school, the Aptitude Test takes place after lunch, so we still have our morning classes. Which means I still have to go to history, my least favorite class.

...

After watching the clock for the last three hours, the bell rings and I slip into the flow of students heading to the lunch room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So what faction do you think you're gonna get?" I ask Lorin, who's been sitting silently beside me for the past 5 minutes.

"What?" Lorin asks, he was clearly not paying attention to anything.

"What do you think your result will be?" I say.

"Oh," Lorin was silent for a while, then he says, " I don't know, but I know it's not Dauntless."

I laugh, Lorin was definitely not Dauntless.

"What do you think you'll get?" Lorin asks.

That was the question I've been asking myself for the past month. What will I get? Will I get Dauntless? Or maybe Erudite, or Abnegation? Before I have time to answer, the bell rings and all the students who are younger than 16 leave the room.

When all the others had left the room, an Abnegation lady I just noticed started to speak:

"Hello, as you all know, today is the day of your Aptitude Test. Where you will learn which faction you belong in. Your test results do not, however, keep you from choosing a different faction, that choice is up to you. Now, we will be testing you in alphabetical order, so I will have…"

By this time, I wasn't listening, I still had a while to wait before I could go. Since Lorin's last name is Parks, he'll after me. I look over at the other tables to see what the other factions are doing. The Candor, as usual, are the loudest of all the factions, except Dauntless of course, all debating and arguing like they always do. The Erudite are either reading huge books or discussing today's assignments. The Amity are chatting loudly and playing stupid games. The Abnegation are all sitting quietly and staring at their shoes, all except one.

A small blond girl is, like me, looking around the room. She catches me staring at her, so I quickly look away. I look back over to Lorin, who is, like me, looking around at the other factions.

"Find any you want to join?" I ask.

"What?" he says, looking around.

"You really need to pay attention more," I say, laughing.

"Whatever," he says, smiling.

"Zahlia Grey!"

I look around and see the Abnegation lady standing at the door. I get up, my legs shaking, and walk towards her.

"Follow me," she says.

She leads me into the first door we meet. It's a plain room with walls covered with mirrors and a dentist's chair in the middle.

"Please sit," she says.

My legs still shaking, I sit down in the chair and look around to the lady. She turns around and hands me a shot glass full of clear liquid.

"Drink this," she says.

_This is it, no holding back,_ I think, and I tip the glass back and swallow.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When I open my eyes I'm standing in the cafeteria, the tables are there, but other than that, the room is completely empty. After a moment of looking around I finally notice that there is something on one of the tables. A long knife, and a block of cheese. I know what I must do, I have to pick one, but what do I need one of them for?

"Choose," says a voice coming from nowhere.

"For what? What do I have to do?" I ask.

"JUST CHOOSE!" says the voice, clearly angry now.

Automaticly, I quickly pick up the knife, as soon as I do, the cheese disappears. Behind me, I hear a growl. I freeze, scared to see what I know is there. Finally, I turn around, and see a big dog standing across the room, getting ready to pounce. I drop my knife, and it bounces out of my reach.

_Now you've done it, _I think.

Thinking furiously, I suddenly remember something I read in animal behavior. If you kneel down in front of them, and don't stare into their eyes, dogs take it as a sign of submission. Heart pumping, I slowly fall to my knees and avoid the dog's eyes. To my horror, the dog pounces, I squeeze my eyes shut, anticipating pain. Something wet brushes against my face, I open my eyes. The dog is sitting in front of me, panting happily.

"Hey, you're not so tough after all, are you?" I ask, scratching the dog's head.

"Puppy!" says a child's voice.

I whip my head around, across the room stands a little girl. I look back over to the dog, he is growling again. Then, out of nowhere, he starts to run towards the girl. Dread filling me, I chase after it and fling myself in it's way.

Before the dog reaches me, the scene changes. I am now standing on the bus that runs through the city. Beside me, a man that smells strongly of smoke is reading the news paper. On the front page is a wanted sign, the man catches me staring at the sign.

"Do you know this man?" he asks me in a rough voice.

I feel like I know him, but it seems wrong to tell him.

"No," I lie.

"You could save me!" he says, his voice getting louder.

"I don't know him," I repeat.

"YOU COULD SAVE ME!" he yells.

His voice fades as everything goes dark, the simulation is over.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Interesting," my test administer says.

"What? What's interesting?" I ask, panic flooding my body. What if I failed the test? What if don't belong to any faction? I'll have to live with the factionless.

"It seems you have received more than one faction as your test result," she says.

"How is that possible?" I ask, relieved that I did get a result, but still worried that I did something wrong.

"You the answered the different test situations with different faction answers. Your results were: half Abnegation, half Erudite, and about 10% of Dauntless." she answered.

"What does this mean?" I ask, even more confused.

"It means you don't belong in just one faction," she says, lowering her voice, "Your mind works differently than others. They call it Divergent. You can't tell anybody at all, it's extremely dangerous."

There was a moment of silence as I sat there, mulling it over. Finally, I say:

"Okay, so I can't tell anybody, but why?

"The Erudite are hunting down all the Divergents, and killing them," she says.

"Why?" I ask, horrified.

"You have to leave now, we don't want anyone to get suspicious, I'll change your test results manually to Dauntless," she says, pushing me out the door, "Good Luck, you'll need it."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The rest of the day passes in a daze, no one listens to any of the teachers, so they give up and let us sit, thinking about our results. Which is what I've been doing since I got my results. Abnegation? Or Erudite? I'd already ruled out Dauntless, sure I can jump on and off trains, but I don't know if I'm brave enough to survive initiation.

I don't have Lorin in any of my classes, so I don't get to talk to him until the end of the day. When the final bell rings, I grab my stuff and hurry outside to wait for Lorin. I have to wait 5 minutes until he finally comes out.

"What took you so long?" I call, walking towards him.

"I decided to walk extremely slow to see how much it would annoy you," he says grinning.

"Really?" I say, shooting him a skeptical look.

"Ok fine, I was thinking about my results in math today, and I fell asleep," he says.

"Now that's more believable," I say, laughing.

I look over my shoulder and see the train coming down the tracks.

"Come on, we're gonna miss the train," I say.

We jog towards the tracks with the others, then fasten our pace, and jump into one of the trains doors.

"That was fun," I say grinning, I've always loved the trains.

"I'm definitely not going to miss this," Lorin says, panting, "I hate running."

"What? I love running!" I say, "It's awesome, except when I have to run for a long time."

"I know, you suck at it," Lorin says, now grinning.

"Hey!," I say, pushing him in the shoulder, "And what about you?"

"Oh whatever," he says.

We stand in silence for a while, looking out over the city. Finally, after 10 minutes of silence, Lorin speaks:

"So what were your test results?"

Remembering my test administers warning, I say:

"We're not supposed to tell, remember?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me," he says.

_Well, if I can't trust Lorin, you can I trust? _I think.

"Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless," I say looking out at the city, determined not to make eye contact.

"Mine was Abnegation, Amity, and Dauntless," he says.

I look over at him and say:

"You're Divergent too?"

"Yup," he says.

My body was flooded with relief, Lorin was Divergent too, I wasn't alone.

"So what faction are you going to choose?" he asks.

"I don't know," I say, "I know I can't be Dauntless, but I just can't decide."

"I'm going to Amity," he says determinedly.

There is another pause, neither of us know what to say. I break the silence.

"Erudite," I say.

Lorin nods, still looking out the door. We both think the same thing, _This is the last time we are going to see each other._

"I'm going to miss you," I say, I finally look at him, "but this is the way it's supposed to be."

I stick my head out of the train and see the Dauntless compound up ahead. I look at Lorin one more time, then I jump.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Zahlia! Zahlia, get up! You're going to be late!" says my mother, shaking me awake.

"What?" I say, barely opening my eyes.

"The Choosing Ceremony, you're going to be late!" she says.

I sit bolt upright, I totally forgot about the Choosing Ceremony.

"I'll see you downstairs," my mom says, closing my bedroom door.

I dash out of bed, pull open my dresser drawers, grab some random clothes, and hurriedly pull them on. I rush over to my vanity and quickly pull my brush through my hair. Before I head downstairs, I check my reflection in the mirror. When I'm satisfied with what I see, I hurry down the stairs.

My mom hands me a piece of toast and steers me out the door. We hurry to the tracks and quickly jump on. Now that I am on the train, with the Choosing Ceremony closing in, I am no longer hungry. I throw the toast out of the train door, and watch it fall out of sight.

Before I know it, we are at the Hub, and I have to jump again. Next thing I know, I am standing in the crowded elevator, heading to the Choosing Ceremony. With a ding, the elevator doors open, revealing a huge room with 5 big bowls in the middle of the room.

"Goodbye honey," my mother says, hugging me.

"Bye Mom," I say on the verge of tears.

"I love you, Zahlia," she says, smiling.

"I love you too," I say.

I watch my mother leave to take her seat with the other Dauntless, then go with other teens that will choose today. I look for Lorin as I take my spot in line, and finally see him walking in with his family. He catches me looking at him and smiles, I smile back. I watch him as he says goodbye to his family and take his place in line.

In a few minutes, all the seats in room are filled and Marcus Eaton, leader of Abnegation, walks to the middle of the room.

"Welcome," said Marcus, "welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor…"

Marcus drones on, but I am no longer listening, I am too nervous. A couple minutes later, Marcus's speech ends, and it is time to call the names.

"Isaiah Zibini!" Marcus shouts.

I watch as a Candor boy stumbles as he makes his way up to the podium. He stands in the middle of the bowls for a moment, then spills his blood on the Abnegation stones. The list goes on, but I don't hear the names, just watch as the people choose to leave their faction or stay with their family.

After a while, the P's start to get called, Lorin will be going soon. The person two people ahead of Lorin goes, an Abnegation boy with the last name Prior. He walks confidently to the podium, and without hesitation, he spills his blood into the Erudite water. There is a collection of gasps from the audience, Abnegation and Erudite are sworn enemies.

The next person is called, "Beatrice Prior", she must be the Abnegation boy's sister. As she walks up to the podium, I recognize her from the wait before my Aptitude Test, she's the one who looked back at me. She stands between the Abnegation and Dauntless bowls, looking back and forth between them. Then, after the longest of pauses, she picks up her knife, cuts her hand, and spills her blood onto the Dauntless coals.

Another wave of gasps fill the room, an Abnegation transferring to Dauntless has only happened once before. When the muttering has stopped, Marcus calls Lorin's name.

"Lorin Parks!" he shouts.

Lorin walks slowly but steadily to the podium, and, after a glance over at me, spills his blood onto the Amity soil. The Amity clap as he looks back over at me, I manage a smile, this is the way it's supposed to be.

The list goes on, but I don't pay attention to any of it.

"Zahlia Grey!" shouts Marcus, snapping me out of my daze.

I walk up to the podium and calmly step up to the bowls, the choice is easy now. I pick up my knife, cut my hand, and let my blood spill into the Erudite water.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Erudite clap for me as I walk towards them, I sit next to the Abnegation boy as the Ceremony continues. When the Ceremony is over, I follow the flow of Erudite out of the Hub, and onto one of the four buses. One for each of the factions, except Dauntless of course.

The ride to Erudite Headquarters is short, since both the Hub building and Erudite Headquarters are in the middle of the city. The flow of people then lead me into a big glass building, the Erudite lobby.

Once inside, I see that the walls are covered in books, with computers on tables by the edges of the room. Figures, the Erudite lobby is a library.

"Excuse me," everybody looks to the front of the room and sees a tall blond woman standing in front of them, "thank you. I am Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite, welcome initiates. Now, Erudite initiation takes place over a time of one month, during this time transfers and Erudite-borns will sleep in different dormitories, but you will all be tested together. Cassidy, you will take the Erudite-borns to their dormitories, and Abby, you will take the transfers to their dormitories."

A tall, dark haired woman, Abby, steps forward and motions us to follow her. She leads us to one of the elevators at the end of the hall, the Erudite-borns go into the other one. We take the elevator to the 3rd floor, the doors open up to a long hallway. Abby leads us to the first door we see, which is labeled _Transferred Initiates Dormitory._

_Convenient, _I think.

"I will come back for you at approximately 7:45 a.m. since your first lesson begins at 8:00 a.m. Of course you will need to buy new clothing, to get to the clothing store, just check the Erudite campus map in the lobby. Also, you're going to need these," said Abby, handing us plastic cards, "these are credit cards, you will get a certain amount of credits each month to spend at the clothing store."

With that, Abby closes the door and leaves us alone.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I crawl into bed, not even bothering to put on the pajamas I just bought. Now that I am no longer moving, thoughts creep into my head:

_What is my mom doing right now? What is Lorin doing? Does he like it in Amity? Am I going to fit in in Erudite? Can I keep my Divergence a secret here? Can Lorin? _

Slowly, I drift to sleep, thoughts still bouncing around my head.

...

I wake up to the sound of shuffling, reluctantly, I open my eyes and see the other transfers getting ready. Slowly as possible, I pull myself out of bed, and open up the chest of drawers beside it. I pick out the navy dress, and grab the makeup bag and shoes I bought yesterday, then head to the dressing rooms right next to the dormitory.

The other tranfer girls are in there too, doing their makeup in front of the mirrors, or getting dressed in the stalls. I make my way over to an empty stall and pull on the dress and the shoes, then I head to one of the mirrors and open my bag.

I had just put my things away when Abby opens the doors and tells us to follow her. She leads us to elevators and we go down to the second floor. With a ding the elevator doors open and Abby leads us down a long hallway. Finally, she motions us through a doorway near the end of the hallway. The Erudite-borns are waiting for us, and standing in front of them is Jeanine Matthews, leader of Erudite.

"Hello initiates, and welcome to your first day of Erudite initiation," says Jeanine, "I will now introduce you to your instructor, Timothy Wilde."

A man with short brown hair walks forward from behind Jeanine, I hadn't noticed him until now. He's younger than I'd expected him to be, probably only 20.

"Good morning," he says, "I'm Timothy Wilde, as you already know, and I am going to be your instructor for the next month, as you also know."

I smile to myself, if he's going to be our instructor, this won't be so bad. After talking for awhile, he puts us into groups of two. I'm paired with a shorter girl with bleach blonde hair.

"Hi," she says, " I'm Isabelle, but you can call me Izzy."

"Hey," I say, "I'm Zahlia, but I guess you can call me Z."

" I'm from Amity, I just couldn't be a farmer, plus I'm not very peaceful. So what faction did you transfer from?," she says.

_Geez, _I think, _this girl talks a mile a minute, I wouldn't be surprised if she was from Candor. _

"Dauntless," I say.

" Wow! That's so cool! I always thought that Dauntless were really awesome. So what is it like there? Do the trains really never stop? Is it hard jumping on and off?" she says.

" No, the trains never stop, and no, it's not very hard to jump on and off, you just have to practice a little," I answer.

"That's cool, I've always wanted to jump on one of those trains," she says.

We work for a while, Isabelle talking the whole time. Pretty soon it's time for lunch. Timothy leads us to a room called the "initiate's eating quarters". Metal tables and benches fill most of the room, on the left wall is a long table with a large window into the kitchen behind it. On the table are plate filled with food, today it's chicken and salad, a meal I'm not used to. I grab my food and head to the end of the table to the drinks. They have a selection here, there's milk, water, and something in a glass bottle labeled "fizzy drinks". I take an orange one, then head to the emptiest table. On the other end sits a blonde girl wearing a blue dress like mine. Before I can start to eat, Isabelle sits down next to me.

"Hey Z," she says.

"Hey," I reply.

When lunch is over, we head back to the room. We continue to work until Timothy tells us it's time for dinner. We head back to the initiate's eating quarters for dinner, this time it's spaghetti. After dinner, I head to the library/lobby to get something to read. I pick out a few books, then sit in chair near a window and start to read.

…

"Hey, you can't be here now, we're closing."

I look up and see a middle aged man looking down on me.

"Sorry, lost track of time," I say, standing up.

I walk to the elevators and ride one to the 3rd floor. I pull on my pajamas and jump into bed.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Welcome new members of Erudite," says Jeanine, "today you will choose your jobs. I will be calling you by your rank in initiation. First up, Cara, Erudite-born."

My friend Cara walks up to Jeanine, thinks for a while, then says, "Scientific Researcher"

"Chris, Candor-born," says Jeanine.

A tall boy with short brown hair walks forward and chooses, "Doctor."

"Zahlia, Dauntless-born," says Jeanine.

I walk forward, and without hesitation, say, "Engineer."

I walk to back to my seat and watch as the ceremony continues. I watch as Isabelle, now my best friend, chooses to be an architect. After the ceremony we get to choose our new homes. Since we are no longer initiates, we get to move to the stone houses next to headquarters. Cara, Isabelle, and I pick an apartment on the top floor and start to move in. It's nearly dark out when we finally have all our stuff moved in. We set up our beds, change into our pajamas, and go to sleep.

In the morning we put all our things away, then head down to the store to buy food. We're half way there when I say, "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll meet you at the store."

I walk out of the bathroom and see a black mob passing by. My heart stops, it's the Dauntless.

My curiosity gets the best of me, I slip out the front door and follow them from a distance. I've been following them for a while when I see where they're heading. The Abnegation sector. I gasp, what are they going to do?

My question is answered when I hear the shots. I sneak closer and what I see confirms my idea, the Dauntless are killing the Abnegation. I catch up to the back of the mob and steal one of the mindless soldier's gun, then sneak around the back of the houses making sure that I'm not seen. I peek around one of the houses and see a large group of Abnegation running from the sector. I start to follow them, running from behind houses. They get farther into the city and head into a run down building. After making sure were not being followed, I head into the building myself.

I look around, but I don't see any of them, they must of gone downstairs. I creep down the stairs and walk into the basement. When I look around, I see pairs of frightened eyes looking up at me.

"It's ok, I'm here to help," I say.

The eyes relax and someone steps forward, Marcus Eaton, leader of the Abnegation.

"We need to get out of the city," he says.

"We can't yet, we need to wait for my wife and daughter," another man steps forward.

"Fine, we will wait for a little, but we must leave soon," says Marcus.

"I'll take lookout, I'm the only one armed," I say.

I head upstairs and look out the window, it's all clear, for now. I've been looking out for a while when I see a Dauntless girl running towards the door. I run downstairs,

"Someone's coming!" I say.

I position myself by the door, gun ready. Then, we hear the knocking. Twice, then three times, then six times.

"That's the code! It must be Natalie and Beatrice." says the man who spoke before.

I start to get up, but another Erudite beats me to it. I remember him from initiation, he's Caleb Prior. After a few moments, Caleb and the Dauntless girl I saw before come down the steps.

"How did you find this place?" Caleb says, "Did Mom find you?"

The Dauntless girl, Beatrice I guess, nods, tears welling in her eyes. I know her mother must be dead. And by the look on their faces, everybody else does too.

"My shoulder," says Beatrice.

They set to work getting the bullet out of her shoulder while I go back upstairs and continue to watch for danger. After a while, I see other figures coming towards the building. One of them looks familiar, and as they come closer I recognize one of them.

Lorin.

I run out the door, and fly into his arms.

"Zahlia! What are you doing here?!" he says.

I pull myself out of his arms, and say, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help the Abnegation," he says.

"Same here," I say.

"I should've known," he says, smiling.

I smile back,

"Come on, there are some Abnegation in here," I say.

I lead Lorin and the other Amity into the building and down the stairs.

"Who are you?" asks Beatrice.

"I'm Zahlia Grey," I say.

"And I'm Lorin Parks, and we're here to help you," Lorin says.

She turns to the Abnegation, "I need some help to get into Dauntless headquarters and stop the simulation," she says.

"We could go," I say, looking at Lorin, "we know the Dauntless compound."

"I have to take the other Abnegation to the Amity compound." Lorin says.

"Then I can go," I say.

"Ok," says Beatrice.

After we had gotten more people to help, Marcus, Beatrice's father, and Caleb, Lorin and I said goodbye, and leave the building.

We head to the train tracks and quickly jump on, then ride the train until we get to the initiate's entrance that Lorin and I found when exploring the Dauntless compound. We jump off the ledge and fall into the net. Beatrice leads us through the Pit, then motions us to stop and slips off through the shadows.

I hear a shout of pain and look around for the source, I see a tall, brown haired boy holding his nose while Beatrice points a gun to his head. She's saying something to him but I can't tell what. Then, all of a sudden, she points the gun at his arm and fires. He screams and she says something else. Finally, he seems to answer her question and she lowers the gun. We walk over and her father takes off jacket and wraps it around the boy's arm, then says,

"Was it really necessary to shoot him?"

When she doesn't answer, Marcus says, "Sometimes pain is for the greater good."

I see her glare at him, then look away. I wonder why she hates him so much.

"Let's go," she says. "Get up Peter."

"You want him to walk?" demands Caleb. "Are you insane?"

"Did I shoot him in the leg?" she says. "No. He walks. Where do we go, Peter?"

Caleb helps Peter to his feet as he says,

"The glass building, eighth floor."

He leads us up the stairs to the glass building above the Pit. Beatrice waits to watch the guards, motions us to wait here, then slowly climbs the metal stairs and disappears.

We hear gunshots from up above, then hear Beatrice shout,

"All clear!"

We come up to the glass room which now has some panels missing and glass shards on the floor. She hands a gun to Caleb.

"You guys stay with him," she says to Caleb, Marcus, and I, motioning to Peter.

Beatrice and her father head to the elevators and disappear behind the doors.

…

With a ding, the elevator open and two people step out of it, it's not Beatrice and her father though. Beatrice is there, but instead of her father there is a boy who looks about two years older than me. He looks at Marcus and I see a look of fear fleet across his face, but it is gone in a second.

"Tobias," says Marcus.

Tobias ignores him.

"Come on," say Beatrice.

Her and Tobias start to lead the way out of Dauntless when Lorin comes again. I rush to meet him.

"Hey," I say.

"Hey, I came to lead you guys to Amity," he says.

"Great," I say. "Let's get out of this place."

Now Lorin and I are in the lead as we walk to the tracks and jump on. We jump into the first car and the others jump into the second. We sit in silence for a while until I say,

"I can't believe they destroyed Abnegation. How could they do something like this?"

"I heard someone say that the Abnegation were trying to release information to the city, and Jeanine didn't want them to," Lorin says.

"So she killed off an entire faction?" I say, mortified.

"I guess you can do anything when you have no soul," he says.

I laugh, for the first time in years, it feels like. We see the fence up ahead, and jump off the train, then walk towards the fence, which stands ajar for the first time. We walk through the opening and leave the city in chaos.


End file.
